This weekend I participated in the NYC Madness Flash Fiction Challenge, where you have 48 hours to write a 1000 word short story for an assigned genre/location/object. My group got ghost story/a coffee shop/a light bulb. At first I was super excited because ghost story is right up my alley – the one time I was assigned the ‘open’ genre, I actually wrote a ghost story (which eventually became my short film High Heels & Hoodoo).

But as soon as I started brainstorming ideas, my enthusiasm waned – everything felt so cliché or like it was going to be the same as everyone else’s story. I mean, that light bulb was going to be flickering in all of them, right? And it was either going to be a barista serving a customer who was actually a ghost or a customer being served by a barista who was actually a ghost. Eventually I came up with something I hoped at least started the story in a slightly original way and was also a fun kind of meta (the protagonist had to submit a short story for a competition’s midnight deadline, but her internet went down, so she was parked outside a coffee shop for wifi).

By the double halfway point (500 words in at 11:30pm Saturday night), I finally admitted I hated my story with the heat of a thousand suns. It was stupid and, worse, boring. I briefly attempted to fix it by rewriting it in the style of Edgar Allan Poe, but soon realized unless the judges got what I was doing, they were just going to think I was a terrible writer (so many adverbs, adjectives, and repeated words!).

As I was pulling out my hair in writerly despair, a new idea revolving around format popped into my desperate brain. I was intrigued but wasn’t sure I could make it work. I spent the next hour thinking and pondering (it might have looked like I was napping, but I was working, I swear) until I had a plan, and then I was off! By 5:30am, I had a rough draft. I finally grabbed some zzz’s and then spent Sunday afternoon rewriting it several times. I managed to turn it in five minutes before the midnight deadline on Sunday night. Whew!

It’s not one of my finer efforts, but it’s not the shame-inducing mess of words that was my first attempt. The big format risk is that the entire thing is an online chat, with a few tweets thrown in at the end. So if the judges don’t spend time hanging out online, they might not understand what I was doing, and I’ll be completely screwed. Plus, since it all happens online, they might decide I didn’t meet the coffee shop location requirement. We’ll see, but regardless, it was fun to stretch myself with something new.

Here's my title and synopsis: A Spirited Chat - Kerri meets an exciting guy online, but he might be seeking more than she's willing to give.

And now for my awkward segue… NYC Midnight is the group that originally introduced me to twitter fiction, so here are my 15 Minute Tweet Tales for the week:

9/18 - She wants to play Dad's favorite song at his funeral. When the palinoia makes her fingers bleed, she's ready - she slips him the cyanide.

9/19 - At fist day roll call, she sighs at a name. Had his four hellion brothers, so it's ineluctable he'd be in her class. He hurls a spitball.

9/20 - Dr. More's wife had a jugal jut that caused people to call her exotic. Accurate, since he created her in a lab by splicing cat and human.

9/21 - Never one for birthdays, he celebrates his 38th with a perfervid energy that baffles his friends. Six months later cancer claims him.

9/22 - While the crepuscular lighting in the room is appropriately symbolic, Jane wants to feel the sun on her face when it's her turn to die.

9/24 - Since his cube-mate has been hurt before, he plans a proreption to win her heart. But she thinks he's gay and starts dating Stan from HR.

Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

It’s starting to feel like we have a repeat word from last year every week. This time the word on 9/16 was supposed to be orgulous, but we already had it almost exactly a year ago. With this many repeats, I hope I don’t run out of words in the Rare Words book before the end of the year!

I also thought it was interesting that three of the words this week actually had to do with words, or at least describing how words are put together: causerie, chrestomathy, and anaphora. Words about words are always fun!

Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

This week we had another repeat word – on 9/9 the word was supposed to be antonomasia, but we already had it back in April of last year. The definition is a memorable one, but I never would have been able to pluck the word itself out of my brain. In fact, I’m not sure that many of these crazy words are sticking around to improve my vocabulary!

9/4 - The threnody for Father starts, and I pretend to cry. People already whisper about the fortune I'm inheriting – don't want them to suspect.

9/5 - Walking on the beach, she finds a muricate sphere and picks it up. It pricks her. The life-form rejoices. It's waited millennia for this.

9/6 "We like pie 'round here, 'specially pecan." The actor used aphesis to try to sound southern, but lacked the lyrical flow of a native.

9/7 - Romantic date at beach. Urticated by jellyfish. Tells him pee cure is old wives' tale. He does it anyway, a bit too excited. Break up.

9/8 - The baby shrieks, but defeating the level boss is his exigent concern. Wife comes home. His punishment? Four months of poopy diaper duty.

9/9 - The kids snigger at their dad's trophic lectures. No one wants eating advice from a man who looks like he's due to deliver any day now.

9/10 - The fuliginous cat runs through the den leaving a trail of ash. "Whose cat is that?" "I don't know." "How'd it get in?" "The chimney?"

Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

A few years ago I was searching for books about Greek gods and stumbled across the Oh. My. Gods. series by Tera Lynn Childs, and today I’m excited to be part of the blog blitz for her new book Sweet Legacy, which is the third book in her Sweet Venom series. The series is set in a world where “Medusa wasn’t a monster, she and her gorgon sisters were guardians who protected the world of man from mythological beasts. Grace, Gretchen, and Greer are her descendants, triplets separated at birth who must reunite, fulfill ancient prophecy, and take up their legacy in a world where monsters lurk in plain sight.”

Here’s the blurb for Sweet Legacy:

Greer has always known she was privileged, though she had no idea how special her second sight made her, even among her triplet monster-fighting sisters. But when a god starts playing with her mind, can Greer step up in her pretty high heels to prevent anything from stopping her sisters’ mission?

Grace loves her adopted brother, Thane, but now that he’s back and has joined her sisters’ team, it’s clear his past is full of dark mysteries. She wants to trust him, but will Thane’s secret put the girls in even more danger?

Gretchen knows she can rely on her sisters to help her stop the monsters. But after getting to know some of the beasties in the abyss, she finds her role as a huntress comes with more responsibility than she ever imagined. How can she know what her birthright demands of her now?

The girls cannot hesitate as they seek the location of the lost door between the realms, even as monsters and gods descend on San Francisco in battle-ready droves. In this exciting conclusion to the Sweet Venom trilogy, these teenage heirs of Medusa must seek the truth, answer the ancient riddles, and claim their immortal legacy.

Sounds exciting! And to celebrate the release of Tera’s book, I asked her to give me one-word answers to five questions:

And now on to today’s regularly scheduled 15 Minute Tweet Tales. I had planned to somehow incorporate Sweet Legacy into the tweet tale on 9/3 to commemorate the release of the book, but was worried the #15tt word of the day would make it too tough. I couldn’t believe my luck when the Rare Words book gave exuviate as the word of the day – too perfect when the inspiration for Tera's series had snakes for hair.

Enjoy the tales:

8/28 - The ubiety of the sprawling oak served as the landmark for giving directions, so when a developer cut it down, the entire town was lost.

8/29 - He loves her truly, deeply. But he needs to sleep with other women. The antinomy of their marriage causes her to weep softly at night.

8/30 - The writer manqué sits in cafés talking characters & themes, but when he goes home each night, the cursor blinks from a blank document.

8/31 - He says their love is olamic, claiming they've lived many lives wrapped in each other's arms. She switches to another seat on the bus.

9/1 - She had a heart of gold, but her invidious beauty made the women shun her. Heart turned to lead, she stole their husbands in return.

9/2 - Amy is thrilled to hold her first book in her hands until she sees the comma corrigendum in her bio: Amy loves eating dogs and cats.

9/3 - Medusa brushes off her shoulders with a sigh. When her snakes exuviate, no amount of dandruff shampoo can help with her first impression.

If you're not familiar with old shampoo commercials, here's an example with the slogan that inspired my Medusa tale.

Have you read any of Tera’s books? Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

It’s time for another #writemotivation check-in – I can’t believe it’s already the last week of August! This week I managed to revise three chapters, and since that’s more than the previous weeks, I’m gonna go ahead and give that a whoo hoo!! Although with only four and a half days left in the month and nine more chapters to go, it doesn’t look good for meeting my ultimate goal of completely finishing the rewrite. But I’m so happy with the quality of what I’ve gotten done that I’m not going to sweat it. Good luck to all the other #writemotivation folks in this last push to the end of the month.

As for the 15 Minute Tweet Tales this week, we definitely had some interesting words, including another repeat. On 8/23 the word was supposed to be fulsome, but we’d already had it almost exactly a year ago on 8/29/12. Weird. Anyway, here they are:

8/21 - As he emerges from the darkness, his eyes fulgurate; she prays it's a trick of the light, but the god before her laughs at such prayers.

8/22 - A serious crisis arises, so the men gather for maieutic prodding: how are they going to get more beer if they're all too drunk to drive?

8/23 - The dog's lusory tail wags lure Timmy into a game of chase; he falls down a well. She prances away: no more fake ball throwing from you.

8/24 - She steps on stage and shudders at the canaille leering at her. As she swings around the pole, she chants 'It's paying for med school.'

8/25 - The death squads march. The twins separate, each taking half of the parure. The power in the rubies will lead them back when it's safe.

8/26 - For years she heaped his plate with fried veggies and meats plus extra butter. It took awhile, but her stenotic homicide went undetected.

8/27 - He bought paint with antimony to capture the luster of her skin. When she torched his studio, his portrait of her was all that survived.

How did you do with your #writemotivation goals this week? Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

I can’t believe it’s already time for another #writemotivation update – it seems like this past week FLEW by. As I predicted in last week’s update, I spent much of the week completely immersed in WriteOnCon. They do a truly excellent job putting it together, so there were a ton of wonderful posts and vlogs, and now my brain is pretty much mush. And since I put my query and writing samples out on the forums for feedback, I spent a lot of time paying it forward by critiquing others. If you missed WriteOnCon, they keep the information up all year, so you can browse at your leisure rather than gorging like I did.

So with all that happening, did I actually accomplish anything on my WIP? Fortunately, the answer is yes! I revised two more chapters. I'm still not setting the world on fire with my speed, but since one of the chapters ended up needing to be almost completely rewritten, I’m pleased with my progress. I hope all the other #writemotivation folks are making steady progress!

And that brings us to my 15 Minute Tweet Tales for this past week. On the first two days, I unintentionally mentioned Facebook in both stories, so I decided to incorporate Facebook in all my tales this week. I remembered on the third day, but then completely spaced on the fourth day, so that idea pretty much fizzled out. Hope you enjoy them anyway!

8/14 - She gives Tim detention for his rabelaisian test answers, but she's eager to post it on Facebook: it's so funny it'll surely go viral.

8/16 - Posting pics of his abs from 20 years ago, telling plain high school girls they're beautiful: Facebook's the perfect place for his venery.

8/17 - He cries every day because classmates torment him. His mom gives him cookies as a roborant, not realizing they tease him for being fat.

8/18 - Searching the pockets of plague victims, he hopes his periapt works: the stench from a pouch of his own filth should chase away disease.

8/19 - The jongleur wasn't afraid to sing about the king's love of playing with dolls, but now his jester bells are jingling from balls.

8/20 - He thinks the symbols on the vase are enchorial to Egypt, but the linguist expert says they're fake - she then sells it for a fortune.

How did you do with your #writemotivation goals this week? Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

First, WriteOnCon is happening today and tomorrow. This is the fourth year for the online conference for kidlit writers. It’s always packed with amazingly helpful information, and there are forums where you can post your query and writing samples for feedback. Make sure you check it out, and if you’re too busy this week, the best part is the info stays up all year.

Second, it’s time for my #writemotivation update. I rewrote two chapters this week. So how am I feeling about that? Well, that pace doesn’t put me on track to finish the whole thing by the end of August, since I have fourteen more chapters to go. But honestly, that’s much faster progress than usual, so I’m happy about it. I made an aggressive deadline to push myself, so even if I don’t meet it, I’ll have gotten a lot more done than my usual glacial pace.

I’m going to push even harder this week, but I imagine with WriteOnCon deliciousness distracting me this week it’s going to be tough. I hope everyone who is participating in #writemotivation has a great week meeting your goals!

And now for my 15 Minute Tweet Tales. We actually had another repeat word: on 8/7 the word was supposed to be traduce, which we already had last June. I think lumpen was a fun-to-say replacement. Here are my tales for the week:

8/7 - He sits in front of the TV every night, eating junk and mocking the lumpen 'stars' of trashy reality shows, never grasping the irony.

8/8 - A doctor's son is gunned down. Police grab the weeping suspect and she claims it was talionic: "That quack killed my son; I killed his."

8/9 - Most demons masquerade as sexy women, but Akem makes his best orectic bargains lounging in coffee shops disguised as a famous agent.

8/10 - He designed a privative captivity to awaken her consciousness. She used the time to imagine creative ways to kill him. Then she did.

8/11 - Mya wears anidian dresses to hide her pregnancy. It would crush her mom to know her stepfather did this to her. Plus she'd blame Mya.

8/13 - She cringes as his agrestic hands reach for her, but he'd paid her way to this country, so she'll do her wifely duty and try to smile. #15tt

Are you ‘attending’ WriteOnCon? How did your #writemotivation goals go this week? Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

The words I present each day for #15tt are basically random – I just go down the line of what’s printed in the Rare Words book – so it’s always fun when there are moments of synchronicity. I took Latin in high school and college, so it’s possible I used to know that cervidae means deer, but it’s not one of those words that stuck with me, but then I recently read The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd in which cervidae=deer comes up as a plot point, so it was kind of swirling in my brain. Then I wrote a Read-n-Feed blog post about Megan’s book and on the very day I posted it on my blog, the #15tt word was cervine! The Twilight Zone theme song definitely played in my head when I saw it in the Rare Words book - what a strange coincidence!

Anyway, there’s still time to enter my giveaway of a signed copy of The Madman’s Daughter, so click here to enter.

7/31 - Neighbors mock the eremitic woman, but she guards a portal in her house that emits lights and sounds sent by beings trying to enslave us.

8/1 - He serves her cervine heart, but she pushes it away in disgust. "It must be the heart of my husband's daughter." He stabs hers instead.

8/2 - She quickly uncovers a venal judge. They find him in his courtroom, eyeballs plucked out. She hopes the other judges get her warning.

8/3 - Whimpering, the cub stumbled down the scree but couldn't catch the hunters dragging off his mother's body. He's alone and she's a rug.

8/4 - The nematoid mass would've sent most girls squealing, but she poked at the wriggling horde unaware she'd one day use them to cure cancer.

8/5 - She hopes the two metopic bumps on her son are bug bites, but when they keep growing, she drowns him. She always said his dad was the devil.

8/6 - She runs a finger up his thigh, promising drugs and sex; it's a Barmecide proposition to lure him to a hotel room to harvest his organs.

Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

I actually learned the word soigné (7/28) last month on an episode of Chopped. One of the chefs was in love with the word (and himself): he used it over and over and over to describe his cooking, and he’d even tattooed the word on his arm. By the end of the episode I was tired of hearing about it, but it’s cool to see it pop up as a #15tt word. Also, I have to admit that the word for 7/30 (costive) makes me giggle. Because I’m twelve.

7/24 - She named her new dog Rex because of his royal stature, but he should have been yclept King Poops-Giant-Piles-In-Unfortunate-Places.

7/25 - The desperate mother praised God when told her house had been paid off. Tim enjoyed doing thaumaturgic deeds with his lottery winnings.

7/26 - He disguises his voice, but the earwitness still identifies him due to his hirrient pronunciation of: I robbed and then garroted her.

7/27 - She discovers her voice is orphic to children. Instead of becoming a teacher, she sends swarms of murderous kids after ex-boyfriends.

7/28 - There were only 2 open seats on the subway, and she picked the one next to the soigné gentleman. As she screams, she wishes for a do-over.

7/29 - A hebetude slithers around his brain. His eyes flick to the drink she'd made. Her smug smile tells him it's too late to call for help.

7/30 - The costive processing speed of the surviving computer didn't seal the facility fast enough. How much damage could three zombies cause?

Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

On 7/20 the word lacuna popped up in the Rare Words book, and I thought we had yet another repeat #15tt word from last year, since I remembered struggling to make it fit into a story. When I ran a search on my blog, however, it didn’t show up in a tweet tale, but in another writing exercise. It was for one of Rachael Harrie’s Campaigner Challenges - she had us write a blog post using four crazy words and lacuna was one of them. Click here to see the monstrosity I created. How cool that it’s now popped up for me to have another go at it via one of my tweet tales.

Also, in case you missed it, I’m giving away a signed copy of A Picture Book Is Just Like You! by Kathleen Fox. It’s easy to enter, so drop by if you haven’t yet.

7/17 - He plays the morigerous intern until they grant him more access. Then he plants a virus to destroy the company that killed his mother.

7/18 - Em collapses on the littoral sand, coughs up water. She'd almost drowned and no one had noticed. Should've let the waves carry her away.

7/19 - He received an invitation to an exequy, but it didn't say who died. When he arrived, no one else was there and Death shoved him in a coffin.

7/20 - People snapped up Tara's memoir, but the lacuna during her marriage to HIM caused a twitter lynching. Better than a real one from HIM.

7/21 - His Thalian antics made his classmates laugh, but his teacher recognized the pain hidden in his jokes. Her phone call saved his life.

7/22 - She's Laodicean to the priest's sermon on the evils of fornication, more focused on how to tell him about the positive pregnancy test.

7/23 - After a confusing fight with girlfriend, Bob calls sister for hermeneutic help. She says, "She broke up with you for not listening."

Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

Babblings of a Boob Tube Junkie

I’m a writer and filmmaker exploring the magic of stories. I’ve always loved to read and watch television and movies, and now I'm creating my own stories via YA novels, short stories, screenplays, and even short films. I’m also an animal lover with a menagerie of pets; and, yes, I’m one of those people who puts party hats on their dogs and makes them “cakes” for their birthdays.

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